Pop-up Globe Takes Major Leap on International Stage

New Sydney season opens this Wednesday
Plus:
The greatest play ever, Hamlet,
on sale tomorrow in Auckland

'The country’s most beloved theatre company’ NZ Herald
‘The best night of theatre ever’ Australian Stage

New Zealand's most successful theatrical export, Pop-up Globe, will take a major leap on the international stage this week with the opening of its first Sydney season, while simultaneously releasing tickets for Shakespeare’s most famous play ever, Hamlet, at home in Auckland.

The opening of the showstopper Sydney theatre in the heart of the city -- a twin of the Auckland theatre and a replica of the greatest theatre ever, the second Globe -- marks a significant milestone in the history of this fledgling company that rose from an Auckland car park two and a half years ago.

Since then, 500,000 people have seen one of the Bard's masterpieces in Auckland and at the company's first international season in Melbourne, but this week the march to take Shakespeare to the masses shifts up another gear.

“To say we're thrilled people have responded in the way they have to this project would be an understatement," beams founder and artistic director Dr Miles Gregory.

“My dream was to recreate the extraordinary instrument for which Shakespeare wrote his plays, the Globe theatre, and give our audience the transformative experience of seeing the plays in the space for which they were written.”

“The opening of our second international season this week in Sydney is something I could only have dreamed of when I started thinking about building Pop-up Globe three years ago.”

Pop-up Globe Sydney is located in Show Ring in Moore Park -- smack-bang at the heart of Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter and signalling to Australian audiences that this theatrical extravaganza is one they won’t want to miss.

Meanwhile, when Hamlet goes on sale tomorrow along with the controversial comedy Measure for Measure, the hype around Auckland's fourth season will suddenly become very real. As the marquee play in a season of masterpieces, Hamlet will follow the comedy The Taming of the Shrew and the bloody and darkly comic tragedy Richard III which are both due to open in November.

The most famous play in the history of theatre, Hamlet is a tragic exploration of revenge, grief, madness and catharsis presented by Pop-up Globe’s Nottingham’s Company who will also perform Measure for Measure in repertory.

Devastated after the death of his father, the melancholy Prince of Denmark finds himself propelled from grief into action when a supernatural visitation suggests that his new step-father may have been responsible for his father’s murder. Sworn to revenge but unable to trust his mother, his girlfriend or his closest friends, can Hamlet outwit and expose the villainous King without it costing him his soul?

The most towering achievement in the dramatic canon, Hamlet combines all the swashbuckling action of a revenge tragedy with profound and poetic questions about the nature of life and death. Pop-up Globe presents Shakespeare’s most iconic character in his most famous play.

Performed in stunning Jacobean period dress, the Nottingham’s Company are a 50:50 mixed company of male and female actors from around the world. Working with international theatre experts and creatives, they will transport you four hundred years into the past for the extraordinary experience of seeing Shakespeare’s plays performed in the space for which they were written.

"Hamlet is Shakespeare’s greatest play because, while the play showcases the struggles of Danish royals, what Shakespeare has really written about are the core elements that drive all of us: grief, betrayal, love (or the lack thereof) and family." says Gregory.

Measure for Measure, also on sale tomorrow, is set in Vienna: a city of brothels, sexual favours and illegitimate children. In his mayoral office, a powerful lawyer and a young nun meet in private. She wants to save her brother’s life. He is happy to help – but at what price?

Never in living memory has Shakespeare’s virtuoso inquiry into abuse of power and sexual exploitation resonated more powerfully than in this timely production of Measure for Measure.

Originally written in 1604 yet still a powerful statement in today’s world, this is Shakespeare’s ultimate exploration into the abuse of power.

There’s always a twist at Pop-up Globe! This is no dusty Shakespeare. It’s alive. Like a party.

For ticketing information, go to popupglobe.co.nz.

Pop-up Globe aims to rediscover and bring back to life the extraordinary experience of Shakespeare’s own audiences through his own work performed in the space and style his own company did.

Pop-up Globe is a three-storey, 16-sided, 700-person capacity theatre. It unites cutting-edge scaffold technology with a 400-year-old design to transport audiences back in time. No matter where they sit or stand in the theatre, audience members are never more than 15 metres from the heart of the action on stage. Sometimes they’ll even find themselves in the play.

Pop-up Globe will again feature all the spectacular theatrical trickery of the Jacobean era, including cannons, flaming arrows, hundreds of litres of fake blood, and hundreds of beautiful bespoke period costume pieces specially constructed by the Pop-up Globe in-house wardrobe department.

The audacious project was originally planned as a one-off in Auckland to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016. Created entirely from scratch by an international company and cast in less than 18 months, Pop-up Globe took the city by storm welcoming more than 100,000 attendees in a season extended twice by popular demand.

ends

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